TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has nine people under observation after a student who returned from Germany was diagnosed as Taiwan’s first case of monkeypox, reports said Saturday (June 25).

Taiwan is the third Asian country, after Singapore and South Korea, to report a case of the viral disease. It has affected more than 3,000 people, mostly in Europe and America.

The 25-year-old man from Tainan City spent January to June studying in Germany before returning home on June 16. Four days later, he suffered a fever, sore throat, muscle pain, a skin rash, and swollen lymph nodes in the groin. After he visited a doctor, tests were conducted which showed a positive result for monkeypox.

As of Saturday, 20 close contacts of the patient had been listed for observation until July 13-14, but none of them had shown any symptoms, CNA reported. However, Saturday afternoon, the CDC announced the number of contacts to be monitored had been cut to nine, including three relatives and five medical workers, per the Liberty Times.

The people removed from the list included three drivers, because they had not approached the patient and had been wearing masks all the time, officials explained. The contacts did not need to be vaccinated because they rated as mid-level risks, not having been in close contact with the patient due to COVID-19 prevention and quarantine measures, the CDC said.

Taiwan listed monkeypox as a category 2 notifiable communicable disease on Thursday (June 23), compelling doctors to report confirmed or suspected cases to the CDC within 24 hours.